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Spinning some very dirty wool

Spinning some very dirty wool

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Last time I told you about our demo at the Log Farm shearing day. When they seared the first sheep they brought over the fleece and laid it out under the tent so people could see it. I used some dog brushes to make small rolags from the fleece and then used my drop spindle to spin some yarn.

Being me, I didn’t take any pictures of the carding or rolags so when I went to the guild I took a bit from one of the fleeces still waiting for a new owner and made some more and both Jan and I took pictures.

 

a drop spindle and some small carders and some dirty wool

You can see all the debris from carding, so much falls out. Then my sort of rolags. The dog brushes are small so it’s hard to make a real roll.

a drop spindle and small carders and wool rollags for spinning. and a lot os little bits of dirt that fell out of the wool while carding

 

I added the wool to the yarn on my spindle, then I plyed it and wound it off to be washed.

 

a drop spindle with dirty wool spun on it

A nice close-up so you can see how dirty it is.

close up of dirty wool on a spindle drop spindle and dirty skein of wool.

At the demo, people had lots of questions about how to wash it, when to wash it and did we have to wash it. The answer to when is at any stage along the way or not at all. I don’t suppose a fisherman in the North Atlantic is too fussed about his waterproof sweater smelling sheepy.

About how to get it clean.  These fleeces are dirty and full of hay bits and other dirt. Carding them takes out some, spinning it takes out some and washing it takes out more.

I wash in a dishpan with Dawn dish soap. It is a good degreaser and most of the dirt is stuck in the grease ( lanolin).

Here is the water after the first wash

a tub of dirty water will wool soaking in it.

and the second wash

second wash of the wool , less dirty water

Then I rinsed it and let it dry. Once it was dry I shook the skein over the dish pan to see how much more would come out. I was surprised by the amount that just shook out.  There is hardly any debris left in the yarn and what there is would pick out easily as you were knitting or weaving.

Little bits of debis shaken out of the clean dry skein

 

Here is the result, with a small amount of unwashed yarn I kept for comparison.

clean skein of wool with some dirty wool for comparison. close up of some clean and dirty wool.

 

Spinning in the grease is enjoyable on a warm day. The lanolin helps it slide. It’s not so fun on a cold day when the lanolin gets sticky and doesn’t like to slide. Washing fleeces is not one of my favourite things but a little yarn is fun.

 

 

 

 

Demo at the Log Farm.

Demo at the Log Farm.

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As some of you know the farmers market I go to is at the Log Farm in Ottawa. https://thelogfarm.com/ Along with the farmers market on Saturdays, there is also a working small farm with the original log house and barns where you can visit and see some animals and enjoy a break from the city without leaving the city.   Last weekend was shearing day for the sheep they have at the farm. They asked my guild to do a demonstration, and of course we said yes.

Here we are setting up under the tents. You can see in the first shot that the styrofoam head and hat had already taken the first of several tumbles with the wind. in the second shot, you can see the container of goodies I brought as a treat. A little bonus for coming out to demo on an iffy weather day.

This is Josee demoing on her table loom.

This is Paula spinning on her electric spinning wheel. She also has her incle loom set up and was demonstrating that too.

This is Maureen Spinning on her wheel, an Ashford Traveler. You can see it in Paula’s picture too. I think Maureen was chatting with someone when I took this.

And to be fair here is a picture of me teaching some girls how to make felted beads using some pencils. I know I am blurry but it was the best shot of the girl’s hands.

 

As I said we were there for shearing day. here are the sheep staying dry while they wait for the shearer.

Here is one getting shorn. They had their own tent so the shearer could also stay dry.  All the wool was donated to the guild and Jan and some others bagged it all to give to fellow members.

Here are some pictures of the surroundings. Some barns were renovated last year. after a few years, they will weather and not look so brand new.

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We had a great time despite the ominous clouds and several downpours. I was surprised at the number of people who attended with the forecast we had but they all seemed happy and I think we gained a couple of guild members.

Eleanor Shadow vending booth at Tangled Galashiels 2024. There's a table in the middle with fibre and yarns in wire cubes, plus one yarn rack on either side and a large basket on the ground
Becoming an in-person vendor again after 7 years

Becoming an in-person vendor again after 7 years

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For those who read this blog but aren’t familiar with what I do, I sell fibre and hand dyed yarns under the brand Eleanor Shadow. For a while, I was happy simply doing my thing of selling online only, until I moved to Edinburgh and started receiving emails via my site from people asking to come to my shop and buy in person.

I can’t allow customers to come into my studio for contractual and insurance reasons and so had to turn people down, which made me really sad. I hate disappointing fellow fibre lovers! This turned out to be a great thing because it lit a fire in me to start vending again in person. Enter Tangled Galashiels, a new fibre festival that two lovely ladies named Naomi and Samira decided to create near the Scottish Borders.

I had been to Tangled last year for their debut and had a lovely time, accidentally buying two fleeces in the process. When I found out they were taking applications for this year, I decided to apply.

 

Instagram post by Tangled Galashiels where I am seen with three friends at the door, just having bought two fleeces and smiling broadly
From left to right: my friends Si, Liz, me and Lisa. Just look at our smiles!

 

Having not done any in-person vending in years, I was slightly apprehensive about the whole endeavour. My friend Liz was super supportive and offered to help me out in any way possible, which included the most important step in this whole thing: transportation. I can’t sell if I can’t get there with my wares, right?

Well, my application was unsuccessful! I was obviously sad, but also very relieved; this meant I wouldn’t have to do any prep and overthink things. I was off the hook for potentially feeling stressed for 6 months as I got ready for the occasion! Life went on.

Six weeks before the event, I receive an email from Samira – one of the vendors had to cancel, would I like to take their place? Panic. Mode. ON! What to do? If I was already convinced I’d be stressed having to get ready 6 months ahead of time, how would I feel with having only 6 weeks? They gave me a few days to decide, so obviously I agonised over it, asking my friends what they thought, asked Liz if the offer of help still stood, asked my husband if he was willing to put up with a frazzled wife and fibre in the flat everywhere (ok, more than usual)… Everyone was super supportive, so I had no excuse to say no.

After replying positively to Samira and questioning my sanity, I got to work. I ordered more yarn and fibre, planned my dyeing schedule and colourways, prepped my marketing and watched videos on festival vending for booth ideas. If this sounds like a well organised me, trust me, this was done with a lot of sighing, swearing and wanting to dig a hole and disappear.

After six weeks, I was ready! Things just slotted into place: the stuff I had just about fit Liz’s car, my husband was my trusty sidekick, my ideas for the booth worked out almost exactly as I had envisioned, and I still had time to do last-minute adjustments on the first day.

Eleanor Shadow vendor booth at Tangled Galashiels 2024. Leonor is standing in front of it, smiling, waiting for the festival to start

Luckily I didn’t have time to feel nervous, I just went into meeting-and-greeting mode, talked to people and was grateful when they bought something from me. Some of the things I thought would fly off the shelves weren’t too popular, and some I didn’t think would garner much attention sold out!

Most of all though, I was so happy to hear people say nice things about my fibre. Being a one-woman band hidden in my studio means I don’t often get feedback on my work, so having fibre-loving strangers telling me they loved my sense of colour or my yarn bases was just soul-lifting.

The event was only two days, perfect for me to get my feet wet and not get too overstimulated. By the end I was exhausted but oh so happy! I loved the whole experience and couldn’t have asked for lovelier people to have met, talked, or sold to.

Now I’m looking into refresher driving lessons (I’ve never driven in the UK and am unaccustomed to driving on the left) and car rentals. I might just start applying left, right and centre to all the fibre festivals!

Tell me all about your experience at yarn festivals, be it as a vendor or buyer – I’d love to hear it! Thanks for reading.

Small things and help with visor problem

Small things and help with visor problem

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I am working on my May slow stitch I have a few things done but it’s not finished quite yet. I plan on finishing it at our guild social on Monday  I think the “May” should be bigger. It’s not a very full page this month but it will have to do. I am liking working with the wash-away stabiliser. We will see if I am still happy after it is dissolved.

 

I have done a little spinning and plying so I have a few new balls of yarn to play with. I got a Moodie Blues pack from Carlene. It’s one of the World of Wool collections.

 

I still need to ply the one on the left. I only have one more to go, the top left one. It amazes me the way the wool changes as you spin it. I think because the colours are side by side they become more subtle. I really like the dark one with the blue slubs in it.

Lately, I need some advice on my mirror cover for the visor in my car. I had stuck it on with some Velcro squares. It worked fine all winter but no it’s hot the glue has melted and it has fallen off. What else can I use to attach the cover?

 

 

Spencerville fiber festival, For the Love of Fibre, 2024

Spencerville fiber festival, For the Love of Fibre, 2024

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Ann suggested you might want to go shopping again. This time we are going a bit closer, only about 45 minutes south of Ottawa, to the small town of Spencerville Ontario. As she mentioned, this one was called “For the Love of Fibre” (but it’s basically a fibre festival with lots of distracting things to look at!)  it’s a much smaller hall than the one I showed you in Peterborough but it is also a lot closer to get to (it was even closer for Ann since she is starting south of Ottawa!) So now that you know where we’re going today, let’s meet in the parking lot just before it opens at 10 am. From where you get off the highway (the 416), there are small (ok, Tiny) signs directing you to the hall, in the fairgrounds so you won’t get lost. If you get there early, there is one outdoor vender, we can check out first.

banner saying For the Love of Fibre tied in front of the brick exterior wall of the hall1) When you reach the building, you are greeted by this banner, (so you know you have found the correct location).

Somehow, we got there before Ann, so Glenn and I sat in the car and were ready to wait a bit. I watched vendors going in and out with last minute stuff. I noticed a tall, black, fluffy, dog, taking himself, or herself, for a walk. The dog was mellow, friendly and quite happy to be wandering around on its own. The dog also watched various people going in and out of the automatic door to the building.  After considering for a moment, the dog strode up to the door, it opened, as it had for the person who had just entered, and the dog proceeded to wander in.  ah, well, maybe the dog has some shopping to do? By this point, if they were letting dogs in, I probably should go in to line up and Ann would find me.

Glenn started getting the walker out of the car and I noticed a panicked-looking person looking around franticly. AH,  the dog’s lost owner? Yes, I pointed at the door and said the dog had gone shopping so she hustled off to collect him/her before he/she could spend all the kibble money on fibre and yarn! The Dog, now accompanied, emerged looking resigned, I guess the shopping trip had been cut short.

Dog folowing woman back towords display of baskets and Man standing beside truck close of baskets staked in a display, blues, teals, oranges blacks and creems in bands and checkerbord patterns2.1-2.2) Here is a picture of the missing dog, who is being sent back to work In the outdoor booth with all the lovely bags and baskets. As well as a close-up of the bags

It was at this time I realized something Horrible!! My camera battery was almost dead (the guild meeting had eaten the life out of one on Monday…. did I recharge it when I got home? Because this second one is now dyeing… no the backup is totally dead. Oh no….. this could be a very short blog post…  So I asked at the entrance if they had an outlet I could borrow. Why Yes let’s go in and see if we can find one. Luckily, Janet Whittam had one at her booth. She had a power bar for the lights to illuminate her booth, so I shared her wall plug. Now don’t let me forget it!!!

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3) Three shots from Janet’s Booth, she has garments, rugs, placemats, and basketry.

It was fun to watch the vendors finishing set up for a moment, but I better leave the battery to recharge and go back to start the line to pay and go in. Just in time, there are more people arriving! But still no Ann!  A bit before the 10am the organizers let the Hordes enter!! And we are off!!

Across from the entrance was Kelly’s booth, you will like Kelly she has nice sheep. She is also a member of the Ottawa Guild. Check out her beautifully painted Louet Spinning wheel!

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4.1-4.2) Kelly’s booth, Yarn, Fiber, pelts

The next booth was also Ottawa Guild members, they had turned yarn bowls (check out the little blue one that is being admired!) there was also weaving, handspun and shall pins as well as a few second-hand books.

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 5.1-5.3) Luna booth, woodworking and weaving

Across the aisle, looking back towards the entrance, was a booth of Yarn, lots of colour and seemed quite popular. I was looking for felt ground and interesting fibre so enjoyed looking for a moment then continued on.

a small crowd in front of booth dispalying yarn 6) Crazy About Yarn booth

 On the other side of the door is a booth you may recognize from the drive out to Peterborough, Twin Pines Alpacas. There was that lovely sample you saw last time, some fibre I had not noticed, the palm washboards, some interesting batts as well as stitch markers and yarn.

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 7.1-7.2) another colourful booth, Fiber, yarn tools and stitch markers

Oh, do you see what’s in the next booth? It’s the booth with spindles that was at the Guild Sale and Peterborough! They had lots of different drop and support spindles, more Naalbinding needles, support bowls, spindle cases and Fiber!

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8.1 8.2) Top of the Whorl had spindles, nalbinding needles, spindle cases and rolags

As I turned to check out Jane Macmillan’s booth with artwork (lots of Cute Sheep!) and cards. I found Ann. She had turned Right and I had turned left when I entered.

shot of artwork most have a sheep theam9) Paintings, prints and cards

 Ann and I checked out what we had found so far

Ann showing off 2 of her new batts there tones of blue and green and could be sky or water 10) Ann has been shopping!! She has a Star Wars shirt since it was May the Fourth Be With You day!!

Ann had found a couple of very nice sky /water bats as she had wandered around in the opposite direction than I had. She showed you them in her last post. I wonder if there are any more of these blue batts, and where did she find them?

We zipped past a few more booths, I took a few shots (I don’t zip as fast as I used to but Ann still does!) let me show you a few things that caught my eye

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11.1 –11.4) Ann spotted this tiny emotional support chicken it’s for really small issues

We found the booth, Alpaca Tracks T(h)read Lightly, which was the source of the pretty batts Ann had purchased.

felted ball shaped purrs12.1 Felted Purse There were felted purses that looked like they were made on a ball.

skaines of died yarn12.2) There was a selection of dyed yarn but I was quickly distracted by the batts on a shelf next to them

a shelf basket full of mix fiber batts 12.3) There were a couple interesting ones left but not as sky-like as I had been hoping for.

Ann spotted a selection of Maori short fiber carded fiber in colour collections. Each is labeled with their colour name so I can get more if need it.

SHort staple Maori batts selections of a colour way i each pacage, blues, greens, reds, black to white.12.4)Maori short-staple batt sample packs different shades and tints of a single colour

Now much more encumbered with packages we moved on.  Look! Black Lamb’s booth was directly in front of us! I checked to see if she had more of the size of thick felt backgrounds I wanted, but no luck the pieces here are not the right shape.

Oh, those tempting balls of hand-dyed super wash merino, the colours are so enticing.

balls of hand died super wash marino, lots of fun to spin 13) Supper wash Merino wool

Let me pull you away from the wool as Ann and I drift over to look at the Yarn based on bird colours (what a cool design idea!) Songbird Yarn and Fibers.

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14.1 -14.3) oh there is that cool hat again!!

Next was another booth of yarn, Yarn seems to be the theme this year! Check out the samples, what cool knitting.

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 15.1 -15.2) I have no idea how this was created, self-striping yarn? Complex colour changes? Still looks cool, and makes me think of a bed of little tulips with tiny leaves occasionally interspersed.

OH MY those tapestries look familiar. I saw similar ones being Jurried for the guild show in November. Yes! it’s the same person, I have forgotten her name, but I bet Ann will remember.  She had some very pretty tapestry landscapes with fringe bottoms. I am looking forward to seeing what she has woven by the fall.

booth of landscape tapestrys16) Booth of landscape tapestry’s

There were a few more booths, more Yarn and this one had felt key chains

flet key chain decorations17)  felt Key Chains ornaments

husband reading in huband wating area18) By the time I got to the Husband-waiting-spot, he was reading a book (he may have been snoozing earlier and I missed it?)

It was a fun event, a bit more yarn than fiber but still lots of interesting things to look at and I did come home with 2 bags of loot.  I did remember to go back and get the camera battery and charger before heading out, but I almost forgot!!

Would you like to see what followed me home?

2 bats a bag of lavender and 2 naalbinding needles19.1)  2 batts, a sachet of Lavender and 2 more Naalbinding needles

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19.2-19.3) Dark blue batt close-up  

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19.4 – 19.5) Light batt

gotland curls (locks)19.6  Gotland fibre Locks (Curls)

Maori short stple batt sample colour packs19.7 Maori short-staple fibre batts  

3 colours of silk hankies19.8 Silk hankies

There is one more item that followed me home,  but did not get to come into the house.  As I was about to leave I looked again at the fleeces in Kelly’s booth, the white one had been sold but the really pretty grey/beige coloured fleece was still there. I was trying to think of who I could split it with and finally caved and bought the whole fleece. It’s out in the side yard so let me take the camera out and see if I can get you a shot. It has a lovely crimp. And the staple length looks like it will be fun to spin or felt. It is a large fleece so it will take me a while to sort and wash each section. Hummm, we have had so much rain this spring, do I really dare wash a fleece we know what happens when I try to dry fleeces!!

BLue Faced Lester/ Romny cross good staple lenght19.9) this is Cupcake, she is a 6.4lbs/ 2.90299kg  BFL (Blue Faced Lester)/Romney cross

I have to find the little Shetland fleece that I purchased at the April (?) guild meeting. I guess this means that there will be fleece washing in my near future! (I will just warn everyone to keep the Umbrellas handy!)

PS: Ann, I see your inspirational garden Violets (did I send you the speckled ones? They look like the ones I got in Oakville) and raze you an inspirational Purple Sand Cherry Blooming!

close up of flowering purple sand cherry branch20) Inspirational Purple Sand Cherry Blooming

Have fun and keep felting!!

Plans, Shopping, Lambs and Flowers

Plans, Shopping, Lambs and Flowers

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Spring is so busy and we have a lot going on. First, even though it is already the 13 of May I have just picked out a piece of felt for my May slow stitch page. It is thin and soft so it will probably need some stabiliser on the back when I am done. There is a little sparkle that the camera is not picking up.  I have picked some things to stitch on it but I will keep that for when it’s done.

a rectangle of multicoloured handmade felt

Also only in the planning is another spiral. I am thinking of using some locks on this one.

Next was shopping. The first fibre show of the year for me was last weekend.  Well, if you don’t count the shopping at the spin. It’s called For the Love of Fibre.  It’s a small show but lots of great stuff. I picked up a small amount of 2 colours I don’t have, just to have them. What better reason could there be? I am sure Jan will have lots of pictures to show you

blue and purple fibre top

 

and 2 art batts. this first one just screams summer beach and will probably get used as is with a few embellishments.

a fiber art batt for spinning or felting.

 

This one I don’t know. I may deconstruct it and use it in a picture or spin some. I don’t know yet.

a fibre art batt for spinning or felting, blues and greens

 

And some lovely dark brown Gottland locks because I can’t resist locks. Well, actually, I resisted a lot of locks, despite Jan’s best efforts to get me to pick other colours too.

Next, we have lambs, there are about 20 in the barn and maybe 10-15 sheep waiting to have their lambs. We now have 2 in the house. 2 I showed you  Sven and Henna and now we have Jett. Poor Jett. his mom likes him but won’t let him drink. he has sharp teeth or rather he had sharp teeth. We used a fine emery board to gently file them but Mom was not willing to take a chance, so he had to come in. He has only been in a couple of days and hasn’t worked out drinking from a bottle yet. We are working on it.

 

A black lamb

Here the 3 of them are in their outdoor pen.

And now for some inspiration. Spring is so inspiring. My front yard has very little grass, mostly it has violets. Most are the standard purple ones.

violets

But also some white and purple ones, and some purple speckled ones.

 

white and purple violets

I think the speckled ones are my favourite.

And soon there will be lilacs. I can’t wait to smell them.

Lilac budds

I hope your spring is going as well as mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A sample of my own knitted diamond-shaped puffs on a wooden surface.
Diamonds and Dolls

Diamonds and Dolls

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The title of this post is misleading: although there are several diamonds in this story (in shape, not in value!) there is only one doll. Apologies for this, but “Many Diamonds and Just One Doll” just didn’t sound as good a title to me.

Let’s begin with the first, shall we?

The diamonds

If you use yarn in any way in a crafting project, chances are you end up with leftovers once you’re done. What to do with the lovely remnants of woolly, colourful string? If you’re anything like me you won’t bear discarding them willy-nilly, but keeping them in a bag without a plan also seems like a waste… Enter the Diamond Miner’s Quilt by Lucky Fox Knits.

A set of diamond-shaped knits, stuffed and sewn together to create a puffy quilt
Photo by Valya Boutenko

This project is not one to be made in a jiffy, rather it is meant to be an ongoing thing, to be added to as the years pass and one is presented with more little bits of yarn that are too precious to not make the most of. It’s a no-fuss, small outdoors knitting project, or simply a quick in-front-of-the-telly-knit when the brain is too tired but the hands are restless.

I currently have two full ziplock bags of diamonds, not nearly enough for a proper quilt, but slowly their numbers have increased and soon I shall have to start sewing some together to show myself I’m not simply hoarding teeny tiny pillows…

A sample of my own knitted diamond-shaped puffs on a wooden surface.

What I most enjoy about these is, I can look at them and remember which project they came from. It’s a way to reminisce about a past knit that I find comforting.
The best part? My knitter friends who know about this now have taken to gifting me their own remnants, so now I get to remember them in my future quilt as well. To me, that’s the definition of cosy.

The doll

Now to my latest fun project, Billie the Sheep. I forget how I came across this cute pattern, but it was before Christmas 2023 and I decided to buy it as a present to myself. Of course, this cute sheep would need some clothes and luckily the creator Gabrielle Vézina would provide the dress and cardigan to go with it.

Billie the Sheep doll, dressed with a knitter dress and a cardigan, next to a printed page of the pattern to make the clothing

Want to know the best part? This dress comes in a children’s size as well, so if you have a little girl in your life who needs a sheep doll and wants to match with it, you can make it happen! It’s simply too adorable.

All of this project is also made from remnants, the calico fabric I used previously as mock-ups for my own clothing, the threads on her face were gifted by a friend who no longer embroiders, the yarn was leftovers I hadn’t made into diamonds yet. The woolly part of her head is a bouclé yarn I used to knit a friend a cosy jumper and stabilised with some pre-felt (see, there’s felting in this post!). If this isn’t the cutest way to enjoy “leftover” project materials, I don’t know what is.

Billie the Sheep flat lay on a wooden surface.

Have you made anything with remnant materials that you care to share? It doesn’t have to be fabric or fibre, anything goes! I love a good upcycle story, so feel free to share it with me below.

 

Making lots of felt pictures

Making lots of felt pictures

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In my last post I was talking (among other things) about a 6-week residency I have in a local Michelin-starred restaurant that starts on 2 April.  Here’s a link in case you missed it or want a reminder.

https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/01/12/pictures-and-plant-pots/

In this blog I’m offering a quick look at the pictures I’ve made (or am part-way through making) since then. I don’t have the space (or time!) to describe the making processes in a lot of detail but do ask questions in the comments section if you want to know more about something.

The restaurant owners suggested I’d need about 40 pictures to fill the 3+ rooms.  I don’t have a lot of spare pictures kicking about – my felt picture making is usually fairly hand-to-mouth – so I really have my work cut out to make enough new work to fill the restaurant walls.

At the time of my last blog, I’d made 1 large and 3 smaller pictures.  I then did a series of 4 slightly impressionistic ‘estuary water’ smaller pieces.  I live on the north Kent coast of SE England and although it looks like ‘sea’, the stretch of water at the bottom of my road is technically the Thames estuary.

Top left to bottom right: Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter

Spring is lightly pre-felted cobweb felts in blue and white laid on a pewter-coloured layer of wool that has a green layer underneath it.

For Summer I made some prefelts which I cut into shapes to try to give the impression of the shifting colours of calm water.

Dry layout for ‘Summer’; a combination of merino prefelt and tops

Autumn is altogether more turbulent with a lot of pewter-colour in the water.  The estuary is often quite murky-looking. I’ve used either or angora or wool locks for the small wave crests.

And winter, like spring, is white and blue cobweb prefelt on a pewter background, but this time with more of the pewter showing and with pewter for both base layers, no green.

While rummaging through my extensive fibre collection, I came across a lovely hank of hand-dyed wool and silk fibres that I’d bought while on holiday in the USA.  I decided to use this for a larger water picture.

Large sea pattern 2: final picture waiting to be framed, the layout and the fibre. The colour representation isn’t very good – the colours in the finished picture are warmer than they look in the photo.

I thought it was time to have a go at a larger bird picture.  I’ve previously featured lapwings in a felt picture and thought I’d like to have another go at those.  Lapwings are beautiful birds with iridescent feathers that appear to change colour depending on the light.  I’d seen a large flock of them at a nearby nature reserve at Oare Marshes. Sorry the quality of these photos is poor, and you can’t see the birds’ colours, but I wanted to show you the lapwings I saw and what their environment looks like.

I started off with some nuno prefelt for lapwing 1 to try to capture that iridescence.  These are mostly silk but the black is velvet devore, which I thought might work for the neck feathers.  I laid out a bird-shape in white then cut the coloured prefelt to make wing feathers.  While I was on a roll, I made another 2 lapwings, testing out different ways of trying to capture the birds’ colours.

Left to right: the layouts for lapwing 1, prefelt for lapwing 1, lapwing 3 and lapwing 2.

Here are the wet-felted bodies that I will needle felt into 2 backgrounds as I add the features: eyes, beaks and legs.

Top to bottom: lapwings 1, 3 and 2.

Oare Marshes is a fantastic place to see birds – with a great variety of migratory, overwintering and breeding wetland birds. However, as you can see in my photos, it’s not a conventionally ‘pretty’ place. I want to locate the birds properly so there’s a challenge in making a picture that is appealing while also being representative of the nature reserve.

This is the background for the solo lapwing (lapwing 2!).  I’ve used 2 different sections of recycled silk scarves for the land section and merino wool for the water – with a few strips of one of the scarves to look like pebble and mud outcrops. Next comes the lapwing which will be needle felted into place and have its features added.

And here is the final picture

Lapwing, Oare Marshes

For the other two lapwings I decide to focus on the water rather than the land.  Here’s the finished picture, with the lapwings needle felted into place.

I really love watching the birds that visit or live along the coast here.  Oystercatchers are very distinctive black and white birds with bright orange eyes and beaks. This is the layout of a coastal background for an oystercatcher. The foreground is made from cut-up prefelt pieces that I’ve made, including some recycled silk fabric; the background is a piece of a beautiful charity shop silk scarf, and I used mostly kid mohair for the wave foam, with a few wool locks.

Here’s the oystercatcher’s body, needle felted into place, then given its eye, beak and legs. The beak is some orange felt I’ve made previously and the legs are recycled tapestry wool. I like how the kid mohair has a wiggly texture.

With an eye on getting the picture numbers up, I branched out a bit and decided to make some smaller monochrome pictures using a commercial merino and silk prefelt with a recycled wool scarf for the foreground.  I then printed tree silhouettes onto them.

Once I’d pretty much used up the wool fabric, I tried out some pieces of monochrome silk. This is work in progress as I haven’t yet printed trees onto the other pieces.  These aren’t my usual style but it’s good to mix things up a bit and they are comparatively quick to make. I may not put all of these into the restaurant but it’s good to have some options.

In the interest of continuing to mix things up, I then made a larger sea pattern, trying to capture the light and reflections that dance across the water.

And then, most recently, another big bird picture, this time of a curlew.  Curlews are the largest European wading birds. They have long, curved beaks and very patterned feathers. Like oystercatchers, curlews can often be seen within a very short walk of my home. The best time to spot them, and lots of other birds, is as the tide starts to go out. They feed along the line of the retreating water. They have a very distinctive call and you can often hear them before seeing them.  Unlike oystercatchers, curlews’ (and lapwings’) UK conservation status is ‘red’, which means they are either globally threatened, have a long historical UK population decline or there’s been at least a 50% decline in the UK breeding population over the last 25 years.

Here’s the final curlew picture: cut up prefelt for the pebbles; blue cobweb prefelt over a pewter background for the water; the bird wet felted separately then needle felted into place and given an eye, beak and legs. The beak is made from short lengths of variegated wool yarn and the legs from tapestry wool. The yarn, tapestry wool and silk fabric in the pebbles were all bought in charity shops. I really like the idea of recycling whenever I can, and it’s great that the charities benefit as well.

In the last couple of days I’ve been making 3D oyster and mussel shells.  I haven’t decided exactly how I will use these yet, some kind of pictures.

Today I made a light background for one of the mussel shells. It’s still damp in this photo. I think the sea foam area will become lighter as it dries.

I’m still a long way from 40 pictures, although I did have a few already made before I started this picture-making marathon.  Now I’ve more or less cleared my diary and I’ve got the rest of March to make more pictures, and to frame them all. I wonder what I’ll do with my spare time?!

I’d be really interested to know what you think so please do leave comments if you have them.

Adventures in colour (Part 1).

Adventures in colour (Part 1).

Comments 21 comments

Ions ago, I purchased all the bits and pieces that I needed for acid dyeing.  I never lost my enthusiasm for it (in principle!).  I listened to my textile friends waxing lyrical about dyeing. If I am to be perfectly honest here, I lacked both the knowledge and the confidence to try it.  So when I came across a dyeing course which was being run over the four Tuesdays in November, well, I didn’t have to think twice, I immediately booked it.  The workshops were run by an Irish Textile Artist and all round nice person, Sharon Wells (https://www.sharonwellsart.com/).  Sharon provided all the equipment and fibres but mentioned that we were free to bring along any fibres we wished to experiment with over the course of the workshop and of course our limitless curiosity!

Week 1:

During week 1 we worked with Jacquard Acid Dyes.  Once Sharon explained the basics of what would and would not work with these dyes, she set us to work, initially teaching us how to secure hanks for the dye pot.  We were each given our own pot to work with.  Then we got down to the fun work of choosing dyes, testing fibres and dyeing.

Our first experiment was with solid colour.  We each threw a variety of fibres into our respective pots and got to work.  It was great fun watching as the colours developed.  I had chosen orange for my first test and it was just so exciting watching the different hues develop.  I have prepared short slideshows of the results of each of the experiments over the four weeks.  Details of the fibres are included in the captions.

  • Kerry Mountain sheep – I carded the dyed sample which was a mistake as it blended all the lovely colours
  • Silk yarn which I bought in the Silk weaving shop on Granville Island Vancouver
  • Chunky woollen yarn, I don’t know the breed but I love the range of colour!
  • Locks again I love the way the dye has taken here
  • Three plant fibres. Not sure which is which but we have nettle, viscose and rose
  • This was given to me to tie my samples and I thought I would dye a sample. There’s definitely some wool in the yarn

Next, to some of my fellow participants horror, we saw Sharon cut into an old shrunk felted jumper.  We were each given squares and shown how to randomly sprinkle the dye powder onto the surface.  This time we used a minimum of 3 colours on the sample.  Once prepared it was popped into the dye pot and other fibres were thrown in not to waste the dye that came off the sample.  Here are my results.

  • Front view A cut off a felted jumper. We sprinkled various colours of dye powder on this before it went in the pot
  • Back view of the sample
  • Various locks: I love the way the colours took
  • Kerry mountain sheep breed: this time I did not card it so we can see it unblended!
  • Yarn: variety unknown
  • The chunky wool yarn which I threw into a different part of the pot

By this stage we were all getting really excited.  This was like alchemy or as one of us said, witchcraft (which is possibly a more accurate description as we all gathered round one of the cauldrons (yes there was one, the rest were pots))  and saw the reactions of the different coloured dyes we were adding to the pot full of fibres.  We were learning (among other things) how to control where the differed colour dye permeated the fibres and how the colours mixed throughout the process.  Here’s what I produced.

  • Industrial prefelt I tie dyed it for a bit of fun. Gorgeous results!
  • Kerry mountain sheep. More exciting colours
  • Locks from the same pot
  • Front view: Silk fibre. I can’t help thinking about Hubble when I see this photo!
  • Back view of the silk fibre
  • Nettle: same pot
  • Front view: Merino 19 micron roving (tops). More Hubble vibes coming through here
  • Back view: Merino roving (tops)

Week 2:

 

 

 

It is amazing how disciplines have their own languages. Mordants; fugitive colours; substantive dyes – Sharon quickly demystified all the terminology – a real confidence boost – then she produced a vat of fibres which she had been seeping in the mordant for some days.  She also gave us a variety of pots which we could work from.  Then came the fun ‘show and tell’.  Sharon had been growing and collecting various flowers and plants over the summer months.  She dried these especially for the session so we each got one to work with.  We had dried containers of marigolds, rose petals, sunflower petals, sunflower heads, and ground up nettle.  I got the nettle to try.  One of the participants opted for fresh eucalyptus.  We set pulling the dye out of the plants, straining it and then to dyeing our fibres.  Here’s our progress and the results:

 

  • A huge vat full of mordanted fibre Aluminium sulphate steeped for a few days in preparation for the course
  • nettle powder some of which has lost its colour from the sun, the remainder is a moss green
    The ground nettle which was dried over the summer
  • Dried roses, the dye produced a lovely perfume
  • Rose petals produced a really exciting pink colour dye
  • the lovely colour extracted from the sunflower heads
  • Here is the sunflower petal dye the final results were vibrant
  • The straining stage for one of the dyes (sorry can’t remember which one!)
  • The beautiful and patient dog Loki with his ball
    Loki oversaw all work and every now and again figured his new friends should stop for play
  • Everyone’s finished work laid out in the sun to dry
  • Result from dyeing with the dried nettles. Not very exciting
  • The marigold petals produced a delicate creamy result which differed in shade depending on the fibre used
    The marigold petals produced a delicate creamy result which differed in shade depending on the fibre used
  • The gorgeous results from the dye extracted from the sunflower petals
  • Lovely shades of yellow from the Sunflower heads
  • The pink was lost during rinsing which was a bit disappointing
  • The fresh eucalyptus produced a delicate green/yellow result which differed in shade depending on the fibre used
    The fresh eucalyptus produced a delicate green/yellow result which differed in shade depending on the fibre used

 

 

 

Then as a further experiment we took dye from a couple of the dye baths and added different components to see how the dye reacted.  We used tin, chrome copper and vinegar.  The results were surprising.

Top is the rose dye
middle L/R vinegar, tin, chrome, copper
Bottom is the Sunflower petals

 

I was disappointed with the colour of the nettles which were a murky colour.  Also the powder from the nettles made the fibre really grainy and unattractive.  I thought I would see if I could use fresh nettles from the garden.  Sharon had offered me some mordant to bring home for this experiment and like an idiot I forgot it.  So, based on an earlier comment she had made during the class I decided to try using aluminium foil as a mordant.  I steeped the fibre overnight and made up the dye which I strained.  Then I dyed the fibre.  The result is a beautiful soft green which I am very pleased with.  I am not sure that the mordant took as only time will tell if the fibre loses its colour but it did not happen when I rinsed it.  The grains from the original nettle powder were still scattered throughout the wool fibre so I took my carders to the Kerry sheep fibre.  Although I have yet to be convinced that natural dye is an avenue I want to pursue further I really enjoyed the day and the learning.

  • a sample of the fresh nettle dye looks green brown, like weak tea
    A sample of the nettle dye from the fresh nettles
  • Overdyeing with the fresh nettle dye. I left it to cool in the dye pot overnight to give it the best chance
  • Result from dyeing with the dried nettles. Not very exciting
  • Final result with the fresh nettles lovely shades of green. photo taken before dyeing
  • The final result for the fresh nettle dye. I love the variety of tints!

I have so much to share from these four weeks that I will save weeks 3 and 4 for my next blog post. A million thanks to Sharon for facilitating such an interesting set of Tuesdays last November.

Colour Palette in a Box

Colour Palette in a Box

Comments 29 comments

I often work on the needle felting part of a project at home or at the guild.  I end up with bags of possible fibres I might need and they usually hang around longer than the project. Every once and a while I have to gather them up and return all the wool to my studio. Then start again for the next thing I am working on. As you know I tend to work smaller, postcard and trading card sort of sizes. That means I don’t need a lot of any one colour. Somehow I always grab way more fiber than I need.

I keep looking at the little boxes of fibre that Ali Express and Amazon sell as part of felting kits. I don’t need the wool or the needles (I have my own local, very knowledgeable, needle dealer- Jan) So I went searching for the boxes. I found them on Ali Express. ali express box for sale I bought 2 Like this.

plastic storage box

plastic storage box from the top

The boxes snap together so I took the lid of one and snapped them together.

front view of 2 stacked storage boxes.

 

Inside there are removable dividers.

top view of storage box deviders

I started adding small amounts of wool, a different colour group in each tray.

And this is what it looks like now. I do still need to add a few more colours but these are the ones I had handy in the house. I left the bottom one empty so I can add tools to it, needles, holders, and scissors to start. I need to sort my needles so I have a few of each in the tray and some of the handles.

storage box full of wool Do you have a good portable storage system for your wool and supplies?